Moscow’s new Mercury City skyscraper is still under construction, but it just broke 339 meters in height this September – making it the tallest building in Europe! The tower designed by Mikhail Posokhin and Frank Williams is part of a large-scale construction project for one of Moscow’s emerging financial districts, and it has eclipsed Renzo Piano’s Shard Skyscraper in London by 29 meters

With 40 stories of offices and luxury apartments situated at the top, the Mercury City tower perfectly represents the Russian ambition to keep pace with contemporary European architecture. Building analyst Emporis reports that the construction boom taking place in Moscow can be credited to the significant decline of building regulations in the city as well as increased interest from Russian and foreign investors in large-scale building enterprises. The tower, planned to be inaugurated in 2013, won’t maintain its position as Europe’s highest building for long, since there are several taller skyscrapers in Russia already under construction.

The tallest building in the world is currently SOM’s Burj Khalifa in Dubai at 828 meters – about 500 meters higher than Mercury City. Now that Russian high-rise architecture has broken into the game, the race for the tallest building has another strong contestant.